Christmas Cheer in Belgium - December 23, 2013

Hello hello! 

First off, so excited to see all your faces Wednesday!! I'm thinking 5pm my time should work just fine. The family said they have everything to Skype...but it case they don't the DMP has 2 computers with everything set up so we'll just skip over to his house if need be.

This week was really awesome. I can't believe all that has happened actually. Wednesday we went to Versailles for a Christmas conference. There were about 5 zones there so it was HUGE. It was so amazing. President and Soeur Poznanski really took care of us.

Highlights: When we showed up, under each chair was a large vanilla envelope (yes I know it's a manila envelope but seriously. What the heck is a manila? Vanilla makes so much more sense) and a small Christmas envelope that looked just big enough to fit a credit card in. After many beautiful uplifting words, we watched a slide show of photos of the people who have baptized and confirmed this year. Well naturally every missionary was feeling pretty fragile at the end of that. Then Soeur Poznanski tells us we can open the small Christmas envelope. Too excited to contain myself I rip it open. What is before my eyes? A temple recommend holder with the France Paris Temple on the cover. On the inside was written a quote from President Monson and then a message from President and Soeur Poznanski that said

"Nous prions pour que vous puissiez vous trouver un jour dans le Temple de Paris avec ces âmes si précieuses".

Translation: We pray that you may find yourself one day in the Paris Temple with these very precious souls.

My eyes filled with tears as I immediately thought of Prisca and Sophie. (Side note-Prisca's husband is getting baptized soon and Prisca is stronger than ever. They are planning to go to the temple to be sealed to their little girls a year after her husband is baptized). These people have become a piece of my soul and the idea of leaving here one day tears me up. I pray that one day I can find a way to come back after the Temple has been finished and re-find my best friends inside the walls of the Lord's House.

Second highlight: At the end of the conference, the Assistants opened up 2 LARGE boxes and Soeur and President Poznanski reached in and pulled out hundreds of red and green envelopes. My heart skipped a beat as I instantly thought. "No. Could it be? Are those letters from our parents?! Did they arrange to have our parents send letters to us?!" Sure enough that was EXACTLY what it was. Naturally my name was the 5th to last called. I hurriedly took my envelope and found a little corner in the church to read my letters. Hot tears rolled down my face as I read some of the most loving words from the most amazing parents. Thanks mom and dad. It was exactly what I needed at the exact time.

Highlight from Charleroi: So on Saturday, we went to go see Chantel. This was the first time I have ever met her so I was pretty excited :). I love new people! Well we get to her home and she lives in incredibly humbling circumstances. We sat down on the only two chairs she had (while she stood-even though she has a bad back-she insisted we sit. SUCH NICE PEOPLE!). The house was dim and her daughter (during the whole lesson) was in the process of silencing their loud and vicious GIGANTIC dog. Theoretically this would not be the best atmosphere for inviting the spirit. But I just thought "Tant pis. We told her we would teach her about Jesus Christ and that is EXACTLY what we will do." 

We decided to teach the Gospel of Christ. We started (naturally) at the beginning - faith. As soon as we started testifying of what faith in our Savoir meant, the spirit filled the room. Throughout the lesson, the dimness of her home and her humble circumstances seemed to wash away. Her dog that, if left to it's own devices I'm pretty sure would lunge at my throat, didn't seem so intimidating and instead of another stranger, I saw standing in front of me, a humble, searching, beloved daughter of God.

We invited her to church and when we called her the next morning (at 8am) to tell her we found her a ride, she told us that she was already ready and she was excited to come to church. When she arrived, I asked her how the rest of her Saturday was. She said that after we came, her day was so much brighter and she was just so excited to come to church. The members showered her with attention and love and I loved watching her throughout the meeting as the members testified of the Birth of Christ. Needless to say, we love her and I'm so excited to see her this week.

I stink as a daughter/sister. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH, STEVEN AND PAPA!!!!!!!! I'm sending you all personal emails as we speak. I'm cutting this email short so I can :) feel special

Anyway, I will see you all soon :) I'm so excited to skype with you.

May your Christmas be centered on the true spirit of Christmas and may you hearts be filled with thoughts of our Savoir and his birth.

Love love love you

Soeur Bitter

Big Move to Charleroi Belgium - December 16, 2013

Hello hello hello! 

I have officially left the countryside of France for the inner-city Belgium. Mmmmm waffles. Yum. It really is a COMPLETELY different country here. Same language but the people in beglium are most definitely not the French haha.

So I'll give the highlights of both Rennes and Belgium.

So I received the news Monday that I would be leaving Rennes. Not going to lie-biggest shocker of my life. I was in the middle of training and usually, you will stay with your blue. But anyway, I decided to wait to tell Sophie that I was leaving until our RDV -- which was Tuesdaynight--my last RDV in Rennes. (Couldn't have planned that better).

We went over to Sophie's and right away I told her (mainly because there was no way I could make it through an entire lesson without). She was SO SAD. She said when she imagined her baptism she thought of her best friend being there too. :( Sigh. She understood though and in her prayer, she asked Heavenly Father to help me find Sophie #2 in Belgium haha. So cute

So for our lesson, we went through the Baptismal questions and just made sure that she was completely ready for Baptism. It was an AMAZING experience. I got to hear her bear her testimony of each of the things that we had taught her. At first she was nervous for the questions but half way through it would go something like this:

"Do you believe that Jospeh Smith was a prophet and restored the true Church of Jesus Christ on the earth again?"    "OF COURSE!! no problem. PASSED!!"

Then we asked her what these things meant to her. It was amazing to watch her search her thoughts and try to explain what she felt. One of my favorites was her describing what it meant to her to have a modern day prophet.

"To me it means....that Jesus sent someone...for us...so we could know Him better. Someone that talks to God and leads the church..." She said some more things like that and then turned to me and asked "And for you? What does it mean for you?"

It then turned into a testimony meeting of all the questions. Her bearing hers first and then me sharing mine. Definitely one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.

That next day, she came to the Train Station to see me off. She bought all the missionaries breakfast patisseries and we took tons of pictures (naturally). I'm going to miss that girl so much.

Update on her: We set up an FHE the Thursday after I left and Sr Barton said that it went amazingly and (of course) the members just loved her so much. I'm excited for her to be a member. I know she will be such a support to the Rennes ward and that her testimony will bless SO MANY.

Now to Charleroi.

So We got our work cut out for us! That is for sure. We are over two wards here...unfortunately those two wards are in different buildings across town so we only get to see the members every other week--which really inhibits my endearing sense of charm. But We'll just have to work double time with the members. There are not a ton of amis right now so this is going to be the transfer of FINDING!! WOOT WOOT!! And actually we had an amazing finding experience last night.

We went to the Christmas broadcast to see if any of the less actives were there. We showed up in time for the last speaker (which was really good by the way). Well, none of the less actives were there but as I was sitting there, I was thinking of where we could do finding in Charleroi. I really didn't know the ville at all and there were really no sections that were more family oriented. it was all old--in fact it kind of looks like Brooklyn NY--no skyscrapers though. Just lots and lots of brick 2 or 3 story buildings all squished together. Some buildings are abandoned, some are nice, some have young families some have older people etc. It's just kind of a mix all together. Another problem-from our apartment, it takes a bit to get to proselyting areas. Around us has DEFINITELY been done and also around the church. Everywhere else takes like 45 minutes. I looked around the fireside and realized -- WAIT, this room is full of members!! They can take us to their neighborhoods! So Afterwards, we ran up to Soeur Wery in the ward and asked her if she could take us to their neighborhood to do some finding. She was thrilled. We drive over there and Sr Mangum has the great idea to make it a power hour.

Power Hour definition: You go to a members house, pray with them and tell them that you will be finding in their area and you ask them to pray for you while you're out. If they have ideas of specific places in their neighborhood, that's great too.

The Wery family told us of their neighbor who had received a Book of Mormon and a less active down the way. They said that the neighbor had already turned away the Elders but that we should try anyway. We try the less active first-not home. Tried the neighbor-fixed a lesson for the next day (tonight). AWESOME!! Well...at that point we had only used like 5 minutes of power hour -- so on we went. Well needless to say, I have never seen such an amazing finding miracle in my life. Not only did their neighbor and his whole family invite us back. But we also found 2 other families and single woman who we fixed lessons with this week. AMAZING!! It really is amazing how much working with members speeds up missionary work. I am so grateful for this ward and their faith and prayers. Needless to say, we're going back to that neighborhood to finish porting it (and also to teach the lessons we fixed haha).

Well, that's all I have time for. Wish us luck in Belgium!! This week is going to be crazy.

Also, going to Paris on Wednesday for a Christmas conference. SO EXCITED!!

Also, don't know when we will be skyping the family but I'm assuming it will be Christmas night time. So Christmas morning for you. We can try google hangout again so we can have many of you peeps on at a time :) It's up to you!! I would love to see Zoe and Callan and Jon and Sarah as well as you guys :)

Love you mucho!!

Soeur Bitter

Last RDV with Sophie

Tugsuu Sending Saying Farewell

Barton and I at the Coast

Goodbye With Sophie (and Breakfast)

First Day in Charleroi 

With Soeur Barton at the Beach

New Comp. Soeur Mangum

Leaving Rennes Before Christmas (Arghh) - December 9, 2013

Hello,

The saddest news ever- I'm leaving Rennes two weeks before Christmas. So...don't send anything more here. I'm really sad but I know that where I'm going is where I am meant to be. I'm headed off to Charleroi so....SEND ME SOMETHING WARM!! 

Other news: Sophie is getting baptized- the 21st (dad's birthday!). It's such a bummer that I won't be there but I'm so excited for her.

Here's the story: So last week, we talked about baptism but she said that she didn't think she was ready. She said maybe in two months. I thought that was acceptable so we left it there. That next morning, she sent us a text and said that she had woken up "really sad because I don't have a baptism". We had told her to pray about it to know which day would be good for her. When we got to our RDV, she told us:

"You know, I've been reading this book for two hours now."

At this point I whipped around, "QUOI!? Which book? The blue one??!"

Sure enough she had been reading the Book of Mormon for two hours straight. Best. News. Ever. And in her words "I really like this book". Her favorite chapter is still the one "about the seed that you have to water and then it will grow into a strong tree. I love it because it's like my faith" :) Love it.

We then talked about dates and we decided that the 21st would be the best :) I'm so excited for her. Since then, she has been sharing the Gospel with EVERYONE. She'll ask me often things like:

"How do you say the name of our church in French? I'm talking about it to my French friends."

She's is already such a great missionary and I know that she will be such a strength to this ward. I'm excited that Rennes gets to have her and I'm excited for how much love she'll receive from these wonderful members.

In all honesty, I'm really distracted by the news that I'm leaving Rennes so I'm having a hard time writing about the week. So that's all I'm going to say.

Have a great week everyone

Soeur Bitter

p.s. I received this morning the Christmas Package from everyone. I opened the letter to see if I could open the presents early. I was shocked to see everyone signed it and then I remembered when we all sat around the table last Christmas and signed the cards. Dad's made me laugh super hard "I know you miss me!" hehe it's so true.

p.p.s I received the cutest package last week from Aunt Maria and Uncle Craig!! I read all the cards and they made me SO SO happy! The stocking is sitting proudly on my desk :) I'm excited to check out the goodies inside.

Love From Craig and Maria

Sophie's Growth in the Gospel - December 2, 2013

Hello,

So it's week 6 again and we're at the end of the transfer. I'm pretty sure I'm going to stay here in Rennes because I'm in the middle of training...but really, you can never know haha. It's crazy how quick this transfer has gone. But since it's week 6, we have a ton of things to do on our p.day and we still want to go to St. Malo so this is going to be a quick email.

So today I'm just going to give an update on Sophie. So this week I really felt we should teach the Word of Wisdom. , I was nervous. She's a 25 year old college student so this could go SO many ways. We get to her lesson and we just ask her how she has been and then I say "OK awesome. We we brought a message but we would love to start with a prayer. You can choose who will give it."

"Me. I want to give it!"

I was a little surprised since with her, she usually gives the closing prayers but I didn't think anything of it and just bowed my head. She then gave the most beautiful prayer about how thankful she is to feel His support in her life especially as she is choosing to follow His path. The spirit was incredibly strong. She finished her prayer and then started to bear her testimony of the influence she has felt of the Lord in her life. Once again she mentioned General Conference. She talked about how before, she really didn't understand what we were describing when we described the Holy Ghost (which is interesting because I could have sworn she did...opps haha).

Then she said "but then you asked me to watch that Conference and...and...it was like there was a wall that I wasn't aware was even there-and someone knocked it down, and I saw for the very first time. Ever since then, I have felt someone behind me, pushing me down this path. I can see it and it's so clear to me".

She then continued and described how good it feels to have someone who supports her. Haha at this point she back-peddled a little and said quickly  "But I know you support me too! It's just, someone on the other side, someone bigger than me. When all my friends are telling me one thing, I know what He wants for me".

We then segued into the Word of Wisdom.  After the lesson she looked at me and said "you always bring the perfect things to teach me. This is exactly what I needed. It wasn't a coincidence you brought this." It was such a testimony to me that the commandments that the Lord gives us really ARE for our good and that telling others to keep them, telling others to repent. While scary, it WILL make them happier. I love that she sees that too. I love that she sees so clearly how she needs to change because she knows how she feels and she knows what we teach will bring her more of that feeling. 

Anyway, that's all I have time for. I can't wait to see all of your lovely faces on Christmas...or Christmas eve. Whichever works best for you. We need to arrange with members when we can be at their house on Christmas to use their skype but we will let you know. Which day is better for you? The 24th or the 25th?

Love my package. Also! This morning I got a package from Grandma Weber! What the surprise!! I'm so excited!! Although, I'm guessing I can't open it until Christmas.

Sending my love!!

Soeur Bitter

French Pastries -- Baffling to Say the Least